Granting Plaintiffs' Motion for Class Certification

USDCSDNY UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT .DOCUMENT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK ELECIRO~ICAlll'" 'FII..EJ) ------------------------------x .DOC If;; _. ______ DA VID FLOYD, LALIT CLARKSON, DATE FILED: 5*/ Ib/1~ DEON DENNIS, and DAVID OURLICHT, individually and on behalf of a class of all others similarly situated, OPINION AND ORDER Plaintiffs, 08 Civ. 1034 (SAS) - against i i THE CITY OF NEW YORK; COMMISSIONER RAYMOND KELLY, individually a~d in his official capacity; MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, individually and in his official capacity; i NEW YORK fITY POLICE OFFICER RODRIGUEZ, in his official capacity; NEW YORK fITY POLICE OFFICER GOODMAN, in his official capacity; NEW YORK CITY POLICE OFFICER SALMERON, Shield #7116, in her individual capacity; NEW YORK CITY POLICE OFFICER PICHARDO, Shield #00794, in his individual capacity; NEW YORK CITY POLICE SERGEANT KELLY, Shield #92145, in his individual capacity; NEW YORK CITY POLICE OFFICER JOYCE, Shield #31274, in his individual capacity; NEW YORK CITY POLICE OFFICER HERNANDEZ, Shield #15957, in his ~ndividual capacity; NEW YORK CITY 1i'OLICE OFFICER MORAN, in hi~ individual capacity; and NEW YORK CITY POLICE OFFICERS JOHN AND JfNE DOES, i i Defendants. -------------------------------x 1 SHIRA A. SCHEINDLIN, U.S.D.J.: I. INTRODUCTION Police officers are permitted to briefly stop any individual, but only upon reasonable suspicion that he is committing a crime.1 The source of that limitation is the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees that “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.” The Supreme Court has explained that this “inestimable right of personal security belongs as much to the citizen on the streets of our cities as to the homeowner closeted in his study to dispose of his secret affairs.”2 The right to physical liberty has long been at the core of our nation’s commitment to respecting the autonomy and dignity of each person: “No right is held more sacred, or is more carefully guarded, by the common law, than the right of every individual to the possession and control of his own person, free from all restraint or interference of others, unless by clear and unquestionable authority of law.”3 Safeguarding this right is quintessentially the role of the judicial branch. 1 See Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 30 (1968). 2 Id. at 9. 3 Union Pac. R. Co. v. Botsford, 141 U.S. 250, 251 (1891). 2 No less central to the courts’ role is ensuring that the administration of law comports with the Fourteenth Amendment, which “undoubtedly intended not only that there should be no arbitrary deprivation of life or liberty, or arbitrary spoliation of property, but that equal protection and security should be given to all under like circumstances in the enjoyment of their personal and civil rights.”4 On over 2.8 million occasions between 2004 and 2009, New York City police officers stopped residents and visitors, restraining their freedom, even if only briefly.5 Over fifty percent of those stops were of Black people and thirty percent were of Latinos, while only ten percent were of Whites.6 The question presented by this lawsuit is whether the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”) has complied with the laws and Constitutions of the United States and the State of New York. Specifically, the four named plaintiffs allege, on behalf of themselves and a putative class, that defendants have engaged in a policy and/or 4 Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356, 367 (1886) (citation and quotation omitted). “Though the law itself be fair on its face and impartial in appearance, yet, if it is applied and administered by public authority with an evil eye and an unequal hand, so as practically to make unjust and illegal discriminations between persons in similar circumstances, material to their rights, the denial of equal justice is still within the prohibition of the Constitution.” Id. at 373-74. 5 As the Supreme Court has explained, being stopped and frisked “must surely be an annoying, frightening, and perhaps humiliating experience.” Terry, 292 U.S. at 25. 6 The parties use the terms Hispanic/Latino interchangeably. 3 practice of unlawfully stopping and frisking people in violation of their Fourth Amendment right to be free from unlawful searches and seizures and their Fourteenth Amendment right to freedom from discrimination on the basis of race. Plaintiffs David Floyd, Lalit Clarkson, Deon Dennis, and David Ourlicht are Black men who seek to represent a class of similarly situated people in this lawsuit against the City of New York, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and named and unnamed police officers. On behalf of the putative class, plaintiffs seek equitable relief in the form of (1) a declaration that defendants’ policies, practices, and/or customs violate the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, and (2) a class-wide injunction mandating significant changes in those policies, practices, and/or customs. This case presents an issue of great public concern: the disproportionate number of Blacks and Latinos, as compared to Whites, who become entangled in the criminal justice system. The specific claims raised in this case are narrower but they are raised in the context of the extensively documented racial disparities in the rates of stops, arrests, convictions, and sentences that continue through the present day. Five nonprofit organizations have filed an amicus brief with this Court arguing that the NYPD’s stop and frisk practices are 4 harmful, degrading, and demoralizing for too many young people in New York7 and twenty-seven of the fifty-one members of the New York City Council have filed a second amicus brief arguing that the practices are a citywide problem that “reinforce[] negative racial stereotypes” and have created “a growing distrust of the NYPD on the part of Black and Latino residents.”8 The NYPD’s stop and frisk program was first presented to this Court over thirteen years ago, in a class action entitled Daniels v. City of New York.9 That case was resolved in 2003 through a settlement that required the City to adopt several remedial measures intended to reduce racial disparities in stops and frisks. Under the terms of that settlement, the NYPD enacted a Racial Profiling Policy; revised the form that police fill out when they conduct a stop so that the encounters would be more accurately documented; and instituted regular audits of the forms, among other measures. 7 “The fact that being stopped is simply a part of life for a young person of color in New York City can only have profound psychological and economic impacts on already disadvantaged communities.” Amicus curiae Brief of the Bronx Defenders, Brotherhood/Sister Sol, the Justice Committee, Picture the Homeless, and Streetwise and Safe in Support of Plaintiffs’ Motion for Class Certification at 8-9. 8 Brief of Amicus Curiae the Black, Latino, and Asian Caucus of the Council of the City of New York in Further Support of Plaintiffs’ Motion for Class Certification at 3. 9 99 Civ. 1695 (SAS). 5 In 2008, after the Daniels settlement expired, plaintiffs brought this action, alleging that defendants had failed to reform their policies and practices. In 2011, after examining the parties’ voluminous submissions, I denied defendants’ motion for summary judgment.10 In April of this year, upon another voluminous record, I granted in part and denied in part defendants’ motion to exclude the testimony of Jeffrey Fagan, plaintiffs’ statistics and criminology expert.11 Plaintiffs now move for certification of the following class: All persons who since January 31, 2005 have been, or in the future will be, subjected to the New York Police Department’s policies and/or widespread customs or practices of stopping, or stopping and frisking, persons in the absence of a reasonable, articulable suspicion that criminal activity has taken, is taking, or is about to take place in violation of the Fourth Amendment, including persons stopped or stopped and frisked on the basis of being Black or Latino in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.12 Because plaintiffs satisfy the legal standard for class certification, their motion is granted. 10 See Floyd v. City of New York (“Floyd I”), 813 F. Supp. 2d 417 (S.D.N.Y. 2011), partial reconsideration granted, 813 F. Supp. 2d 457 (S.D.N.Y. 2011). 11 See Floyd v. City of New York, No. 08 Civ. 1034, 2012 WL 1344514 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 14, 2012) (“Floyd II”). 12 See Memorandum of Law in Support of Plaintiffs’ Motion for Class Certification (“Pl. Mem.”) at 1. 6 II. LEGAL STANDARD A. Rule 23(a) Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure permits individuals to sue as representatives of an aggrieved class. To be certified, a putative class must first meet all four prerequisites set forth in Rule 23(a), generally referred to as numerosity, commonality, typicality, and adequacy.13 “[C]ertification is proper only if the trial court is satisfied, after rigorous analysis, that the prerequisites of Rule 23(a) have been satisfied.”14 This rigorous analysis requires examining the facts of the dispute, not merely the pleadings, and it will frequently “entail some overlap with the merits of the plaintiff’s underlying claim.”15 Even before the Supreme Court clearly articulated this standard in its 13 See Teamsters Local 445 Freight Div. Pension Fund v. Bombardier Inc., 546 F.3d 196, 201-02 (2d Cir. 2008) (“Teamsters”). In full, Rule 23(a) reads: “Prerequisites. One or more members of a class may sue or be sued as representative parties on behalf of all members only if: (1) the class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable; (2) there are questions of law or fact common to the class; (3) the claims or defenses of the representative parties are typical of the claims or defenses of the class; and (4) the representative parties will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class.” 14 Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

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